Window to the Past: Harriet Street, 1961

Pictured from Westwood Road, after the trams were withdrawn , Wellmeadow Road is on the left where the woman is about to cross.

The Jubilee tenement can be seen in the distance, and in the foreground there is an Austin Devon van convertion.

In the foreground the street was narrow and here the road level had to be raised to accommodate tram lines. This meant that there was the unusual situation of the pavement being lower than the road.

Problems were sometimes caused by drivers, mainly carters, who parked at the pavement edge blocking it to the trams.

Wheel spacing on most carts was the same as tram rails, and where the streets were cobbled the steel shod cart wheels gave a noisy and uncomfortable ride, so drivers took every opportunity to drive along the tracks.

This sometimes led to a carter defying a tram driver who would clang his foot-operated bell telling them ‘to get out of the way’.